Funny Frankenstein – It’s Alive!!!

70 years ago the Frankenstein monster came to life... but this time the mad scientist that created him was a cartoonist named Dick Briefer.
There are a couple of reasons why these Frankenstein comics are so special. The most interesting thing is that this Frankenstein monster lived two distinct lives, both at the hand of the same great cartoonist. Dick Briefer started out drawing Frankenstein comics in 1940 as a straight horror comic. But by 1945, he changed the entire direction of the book and the character into a wonderfully playful humor comic.
The funny Frankenstein comics are delightful stream of consciousness romps drawn with a breezy spontaneity that can only be compared to what Harvey Kurtzman was doing in the late 40s. Like Kurtzman, Dick Briefer had the amazing ability to masterfully execute both serious and humorous comics.
I was very fortunate to have discovered these comics when my former Nickelodeon Magazine editor Chris Duffy sent me a care package full of color xeroxes of comics that he liked. I fell in love right away, and stuck all of these color xeroxes into a binder that I've been drooling over ever since. Since the actual comic books are so rare and expensive, reading these xeroxes was the closest I could come to reading the actual comic books.
Dick Briefer's brilliant Frankenstein comics have almost completely been buried by the sands of time. Part of the reason may be that these fantastic comics were published by Crestwood Publications, the publishing outfit that's been out of business since 1963.
That's one of the reasons I'm so happy to see this new reprint treasury compiled by comic reprint maven Craig Yoe. His new book, "Dick Briefer's Frankenstein" lovingly reprints 144 pages of those 1940s to 1950s Frankenstein comics... and it includes the best of both the scary Frankenstein and the funny Frankenstein!

I'm much much much more partial to the funny Frankenstein comics, but I enjoy the more serious stories also... mostly because I'm fascinated that one artist could create both sets of stories so well. On at least one occasion, he reused one of his funny plots for one of his later serious Frankenstein comics.

Today a bunch of us comic book bloggers are celebrating the release of Craig Yoe’s new Frankenstein book by featuring different comic stories by the masterful Dick Briefer.

Make sure to check out the links at the bottom of the post for more Frankenstein fun

Since there's absolutely no way to adequately describe the lively, bouncy and silly artwork and stories, I hope you enjoy reading and drooling over the story below: "Blooperman" is a wonderfully silly story from 1947's Frankenstein #8. Enjoy!

If you liked this little taste, head down to your local comics shop and see if they've got the new Frankenstein hardcover collection! If not, there's always Amazon.com -- you'll find a link for that right under the picture at right >>>

6 comments:

Hi Sherm--I am looking forward to this book as well. Never heard of these prior to the finding some on the internet a few years back. Such memorable artwork! The funny ones have an irresistible looseness to them. Thanks for posting these fine images...

Thanks Sherm! As much as I still have trouble with the high placement of the nose on funny Frank,....the art is a blast to look at and the stories are equally fun to read! The Horror style of Frank is great too!